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| KATHMANDU: Nepalese resident Dana Sunar, 18, who is the last member of the Dalit caste in her class, poses for a photograph in a field in Simikot, the headquarters of Humla district. — AFP |
SIMIKOT: On a freezing night three years ago,
13-year-old Susmita Kami sneaked out of her
husband’s house and didn’t stop running
until she reached her parent’s doorstep in
Nepal’s remote northwest. Her escape from a
forced marriage-a tradition many teenage
girls from the Himalayan nation’s Dalit community
are expected to uphold-was soon
under threat. But Susmita’s parents resisted
demands from her in-laws to send her back,
deciding to stand by their pleading daughter
who desperately wanted a better life. “I told
them I never wanted to get married and I
wasn’t going back. I ran away because I wanted
to stay in school,” Susmita, now 16, told
AFP. Although Nepal banned child marriage
in 1963, four out of ten girls are married
before they turn 18, according to UNICEF.
The figures are even higher among the
country’s impoverished Dalits or “untouchables”
who live in remote communities
shunned by the mainstream, meaning their
customs go largely unchallenged. Three out
of four Dalits marry during their teens or earlier,
according to a 2012 survey by Plan
International, Save the Children and World
Vision. Girls are often abducted by prospective
grooms in a cultural practice few families
object to. Susmita was kidnapped while collecting
firewood, and forcibly married four
days later-an ordeal also endured by her
mother, Jadane Kami, when she was a
teenager. “This is our culture. People worry
that otherwise our girls will elope or marry
into other communities,” said Kami, who initially
did not oppose her daughter’s forced
marriage. The tradition has survived a tenyear
civil war, the end of royal rule and
Nepal’s transition to democratic politics.
Segregated settlements
In Simikot, headquarters of remote Humla
district that borders the Tibetan plateau,
Dalits live in segregated settlements. Their
hay-topped homes stand in stark contrast to
the shiny tin roofs of houses belonging to
higher-caste Hindus and Buddhists. “Dalits
have struggled due to their low caste status.
For centuries, they were not allowed to mix
with others at all,” Humla’s deputy district
chief, Bam Bahadur KC, said. “Naturally, thishas left them very isolated, they are still following
old customs and change has been
slow to come,” he said. Dalit families also
labor under huge financial strain, officials say,
with children pushed to leave school and
start work while their parents eke out a living
as subsistence farmers.
The oldest of seven children, Dana Sunar,
now 18, had been the last Dalit girl in her
class. While the others had dropped out,
Sunar dreamed of graduating and becoming
a schoolteacher. But she was taken at 14 and
forced to marry an 18-year-old farmer earning
$50 a month. “I cried and cried. It was like a
door had closed before me, any dreams I had
were gone,” Sunar said. Her in-laws pressured
her to drop out of school and focus on farming
and housework. Now a mother to sixmonth-old
twins, Sunar described her new
life as “a daily struggle”. “We never have
enough money - sometimes we eat only once
a day. I don’t know how I am going to bring
up these children,” she said.
‘Terrible custom’
Experts say the consequences of marrying
so young are devastating. “Adolescents have
children early, they are unable to focus on
education...and both mothers and babies end
up with health problems,” said Kunga Sanduk
Lama, a government official who works on
child rights. Laws are ineffective, he said, citing
a lack of evidence-documents, photos or
witness testimonies-needed to prove a marriage
occurred so punitive action can be pursued.Instead,
campaigners focus on raising
awareness through radio shows, street plays
and after-school clubs for children.
Those who have fallen victim to the tradition
need no convincing. Susmita, now in
ninth grade, said she wanted to see an end to
“this terrible custom”. Her father, a cobbler
who earns $80 a month, said sending her to
school was a struggle. The cost of her uniform
alone is a staggering $45. But for now, her
family will do whatever they can to keep her
in class. “I want my daughter to have a chance
to stand on her own feet,” her mother said. “I
think she did the right thing by running away.
She is more brave than me I never felt like I
had a choice in the matter.” — AFP
source:-kuwaittimes
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